


To Have You Safe

by WeirdEmmaline (DeliaDestruction)



Category: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-16 16:31:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8109586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeliaDestruction/pseuds/WeirdEmmaline
Summary: My first Les Mis fic. Soft Valvert. Javert is confused by Valjean's kindness.





	

They believed me. They trust that I’m not a spy. Valjean leaned against the wall in the alley behind the barricade, chest heaving as he caught his breath. Years— nay, decades— of living on the run, of fighting for his keep, of hiding his emotions behind a stony visage had crafted the man into quite the actor. His fingertips danced across a small wooden cross that hung from a length of cord tied carefully around his neck. It was hidden completely between his shirts and his chest, but it gave him comfort knowing that it was there. He uttered a quiet prayer of thanks to the Lord before turning his attention back to the crowd of young men that he now found himself among the ranks of.   
He felt a pang of sadness as his eyes moved from boy to boy, studying their faces in the firelight. Each looked younger than the last. The thought of their blood being spilled there upon that barricade made his heart physically hurt. He knew that it was likely he would share that fate with them.  
It was a long moment before his eyes fell upon the boy that had written to Cosette of his feelings for her. He was laughing and joking with his friends, but even from where he stood Valjean could see the fear in the boy’s eyes. Worse than that, the resignation. The understanding that he was about to die. No one so young should be so resigned to their fate.  
He watched Marius for a short while before noticing a strange sound. An oddly familiar sound. A sound he was almost certain he couldn’t be hearing. It was the voice that had haunted him for so many years. “It- It can’t be,” he murmured, his voice catching in his throat as a tumultuous sea of emotion raged within him. Part of him, by no means a small part of him, wanted to run.   
But another part of him- a smaller, louder part of him- needed to know if his ears were deceiving him.   
He followed the sound of the man’s voice to a small storefront that had been completely emptied to add to the barricade. Two young men stood guarding a prisoner who sat on the floor with his back against the wall. His eyes were fixed on a spot on the floor near his own feet, and his face was hidden in shadow, but that voice.  
“Keeping me alive as something to barter with won’t work, you know,” the prisoner said. Jean Valjean was practically upon the prisoner now and yet he still refused to believe that it was Javert until he saw him with his own eyes. “My life is worthless to you.”  
“You’ve got that right,” said one of the young men guarding him. Both guards laughed before turning their attention to still-approaching Valjean. One of them raised his gun while the other signaled for him to wait. “Who’s there?”   
Valjean stepped forward into the light cast by the young guards’ candles. For a moment longer, the one kept his gun trained on Valjean’s chest before slowly lowering it. “It’s just the old man who volunteered to die with us,” he muttered. “What is it?”  
“That prisoner…” Valjean started, before clearing his throat. “I wonder, since things look so bleak, if I might be allowed to handle him? They will need you when the army attacks once more.”  
The guards exchanged thoughtful looks. “You know this man?” one asked, jabbing his thumb at the man sitting against the wall.   
“In a way,” Jean Valjean replied, looking down upon the dark-haired man on the ground. He was certain now that this was Javert. “Please, allow me to take this burden from you.”  
There was a moment of strained silence before the young men relented. The one who’d leveled his gun at Valjean’s chest passed him without another word. The other paused at Valjean’s side and pressed a small, sharp knife into his hand. “Do what you feel is right,” he said, glancing back one last time at Javert before pushing past Valjean, leaving him alone with the man that had hunted him for the majority of his adult life.   
The former prisoner took a deep breath before he knelt beside the current prisoner. Would he be recognized? He couldn’t say. So far, Javert hadn’t taken his eyes off of that spot on the floor near his left boot. He hadn’t spoken since Valjean had begun speaking to his now former guards. Does he—  
“Oh, how the tables have turned.” Javert’s words startled Valjean, pulling him back to the moment at hand. He looked down at the man who sat beside where he now knelt and found that those intense green eyes that had haunted his dreams for so many years were mere inches from his own, gazing intently at him. The prisoner made no attempt to hide his contempt for the man who now held his fate within his hands. “Of course they would choose a convict to carry out my sentence.”  
“Carry out your— monsieur, I’ve come to free you.” Valjean shook his head, incredulous. “Surely you can’t believe—”  
“You cannot fool me, 24601,” Javert snapped. “I know you desire my demise. You have since the day that I learned your secret, monsieur le maire.”   
“You can’t know how wrong you are in that assumption,” Valjean replied as he gently pulled Javert away from the wall. It was then that the glint of the knife Valjean still held in the candlelight caught the inspector’s eye. He became far more willing to cooperate in that moment.   
“I’ve had you pegged since the first moment I laid eyes on you, 2460-” Javert sneered as he leaned forward and waited for the pain he knew was inevitable.  
What he felt, however, was rather horribly manhandled as he was unceremoniously forced to his feet. He stared at Valjean in confusion. It felt as though the former prisoner would be able to fairly casually pick him up with his free hand. One so old as him should not be so strong. It was simply unnatural.  
“I see,” he said as he was pulled along by the collar of his shirt. “Can’t carry out your revenge where someone else might see. It would ruin your façade of being a changed man. It matters not in the eyes of the law nor the Lord. You will pay for your crimes, even if there are no witnesses.”  
Valjean said nothing, merely continued to pull him along until they were well away from the crowd at the barricade. Quite suddenly, he shoved Javert forward and pressed him face-first against a wall. This is it, thought Javert. The criminal showing his true colors. This will be my end.   
He waited for the sensation of a knife being sheathed in his back.   
It didn’t come.  
What he felt instead was the sensation of the rope that bound his wrists together being cut. “Wh-”  
“I told you, Inspector, I’m freeing you.”  
“What manner of trickery is this?” Javert demanded as he turned around to face Valjean once more. “You cannot fool me. Once a thief, always a thief. What is it you intend to steal tonight?”  
“You are wrong about me, Inspector Javert.”  
Javert snorted, barely containing a sarcastic laugh.  
“If there is one thing I know, it is a criminal,” he replied. “When faced with a choice the likes of which you now face, a criminal always chooses what will keep them free. If you do not kill me, you will be taken into custody.”  
“I am sparing your life,” Valjean sighed. As if to punctuate his point, he threw the knife to the ground. “If you honestly think you can take me into custody and not be recaptured by the boys at the barricade, then do as you must. I will not fight you.”  
Javert gaped at him, utterly confounded by the words coming out of his mouth.   
“You will not fool me,” he said, his eyes narrowing as he considered his options. Clearly, he couldn’t trust what the other man was saying. Could I reach the knife before him? Perhaps if I took him by surprise, but-   
The whole of Javert’s body tensed as Valjean reached out and caressed his cheek, resting his palm against his jaw.  
“I am not attempting to fool you, monsieur. I only wish to have you safe.”  
Breathe. He is just a criminal. An unarmed criminal. I will not let him overpower or intimidate me. “What manner of trickery is this?” he demanded after a moment, his voice cracking. He found himself incredibly thankful for the darkness as he felt blood rush to his cheeks.   
“It is no trick, monsieur,” Valjean replied. Javert could feel the heat of the other man’s breath on his cheek as he spoke. It was only then that he realized exactly how close Valjean was. When had he gotten so close? Javert had kept his eyes on him the entire time, he was certain of it. Again, he tensed as he felt Valjean run his thumb along his lower lip.  
“What are you doing?” he demanded.   
For a long moment, neither man moved. Valjean offered no reply. It seemed that they both had even forgotten to breathe, if only for a moment.   
That moment passed, and Javert lifted his arms to shove the other man away. At the same time, Valjean leaned in and pressed his lips to Javert’s. Javert paused briefly, his hands pressed against Valjean’s chest, ready to push him away, but he couldn’t quite muster the strength to do it. It took him a long moment to realize what was happening. It didn’t add up. Why?  
When Valjean finally broke the kiss after a few long moments, he allowed himself to linger only a breath away before finally pulling away and allowing Javert some space.  
“What was-” Javert couldn’t finish his question. That kiss was the first positive touch he’d experienced in so long, the touch-starved inspector wanted more. Needed more. And now Valjean was pulling away. “You can’t just leave me like this, having done that.”  
“You have to go,” Valjean replied. “I am thankful that the Lord allowed me one last chance to see you. All these years, all these times our paths have crossed, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t grown fond of you, Inspector. I’m glad I finally had the chance and the courage to do that.”  
He took another step back. There was so much space between the two of them now. Javert didn’t quite understand why that made him so uncomfortable. Before, he hadn’t wanted the criminal anywhere near him. Now he couldn’t stand the space between them. His mind was working overtime trying to figure out how he could ensure that closeness once more.  
But as his mind worked at that seemingly unsolvable puzzle, Valjean stepped back until he disappeared into the darkness, leaving Javert on his own. “Hey!” cried Javert as he realized, too late, what had happened. “Get back here!”  
He received no answer.   
For a moment he considered going back to the barricade to find and detain Valjean. He couldn’t allow him to escape again. But he also couldn’t take such a blatant risk.   
Valjean had escaped this night, that much was true. But it would be the last time he would escape Javert’s grasp. That he swore as he stole away into the night.  
The next time their paths crossed, he would detain him. There was no other acceptable outcome in his mind. 


End file.
